Will Dept. Merger's Save the City Money? Real Numbers & Real Facts

At the August 8th* Common Council meeting the first vote for merger of the Parks Department into the Public Works Department and the merger of the Recreation Department and Senior Services into one department took place.  NO estimated savings were discussed or presented at the Council meeting.

This is the second round of mergers that are a result of the Mayor's Task Force; the first being the merger of the Legal Department and the Personnel Department.  At the time of that merger, it was put forth the combining of those two departments would produce significant savings to the taxpayer. 

The following is  a table we created of the amounts budgeted for the two departments for the past 5 fiscal years for their full-time salary lines.  The planned merger called for hiring of two Deputy Counsels however, during the budget process for this year (year ending 6/30/2014) only one was funded.  This table does not include any of the funds spent for the golden handshakes and payouts given to employees to achieve / facilitate the merger; but only what was budgeted for salaries.

The vote last week came down 9 to 1- with Councilwoman Linda Salafia (R) the only person o vote against the merging of Park & Rec, Senior Services, and Public Works. Councilwomen Hope Kasper (D) and Deborah Kleckowski (R) were absent. 

For the previous merging of Legal and Personnel the vote in May was 10-2 with Kleckowski (R) and Salafia (R) in opposition of the consolidation, which according to the end of the year fiscal analysis,  in fact, proved more costly to tax payers.

*Editor's note: The chart below is an example of expenses for the last three fiscal years for the separate Legal  and Personnel Department. Since the merger, the last last column under Total shows that for the 2013 fiscal year, the combined legal/personnel department with additional attorneys and staff has had an increase in spending despite the claims of the merger saving money. Outside counsel from other attorneys has cost the city even more money, despite new personnel hired in the Legal Office. So far, the merging of the Personnel and Legal departments has not saved money, but in fact been more costly to tax payers. 

Chart showing budgeted amounts for the legal and personnel departments for the last five years.

Year ending 6/30        Personnel department             Legal department        Total

2010                            $253,164                                 $363,867                     $617,031

2011                            $262,491                                 $340,841                     $603,332

2012                            $211,582                                 $391,606                     $663,188

2013                            $225,346                                 $420,279

additional appropriations  12/2012                                   70,000                     $715,625

2014                            $146,477                                 $487,769                     $634,246

 

Rumblings from Middletown

1. Big Lots is moving into old A&P space on Washington Street. Mayor Drew  will undoubtedly try to take credit for this which was just good old fashion CAPITALISM and brokering between two private companies! Drew’s trip to the far East had nothing to do with bringing this new business to Middletown no matter how it is spun. Big Lots is a US based company that buys surplus items from retail stores. Commenters online are already complaining that the store is low brow. You would think a company that buys and therefore keeps surplus goods out of landfills would be right up the granola folks' alley.

2. Months back Drew was quoted by the Mess in an article about ID Mail Systems, a company renting space in the Remington Rand building, as saying he played a key role in their new contract with new overseas clients. If you believe this tall tale about Pinnochio Boy, then you probably still believe he works a full day too.

3. Government surplus  property on Mile Lane was supposed to be transferred to the City by now since the process to do so was completed 6 years ago! Over a year ago Drew took the whole tax payer funded trip to visit congresswoman Red Rosa in DC. If this still is hanging out there taxpayers should ask for a refund.

4. Some Democrats are trying to say Lisa Santangelo was never a Registrar of Voters. She was never at City Hall. It was all a hologram by Republicans to make them look like they had an out of control she-dragon puppeting the mayor.

5. Got your water & sewer bill? Paying double but have not had an increase in usage? Hello anyone? W&S department is STILL FUBAR’d yet not even 1 of the 4 conscious councilmembers has brought up the report that was done a year ago stating the department was in shambles! Even Thelma & Louise have been quiet on the council floor lately (Kleckowski has offered to help those as part of WPCA, kudos for that). 

 You can crunch
 the numbers Salafia,
what happened to the 
finger shaking?
Come on!!

But ladies, we know you‘ve got your hands full babysitting the two boys, but come on- channel some Lisa & get all nasty up in there biatches!!!!

6. Councilman Pessina asked for a full report to see what could be done differently after the last freak snow storm that left many residents house bound while streets were left un plowed. Four months later, still no report! Must be filed with the Mayor's China report. Thanks buddy for following up on that!

7.  Republican Councilmen Pessina and Bibisi sold out their party by voting against the budget they helped write a year ago, and this year voted FOR a larger more costly government in merging legal & personnel. Pessina gave a speech ENDORSING the merger, & ANOTHER praising  Drew’s budget which includes HIGHER taxes! Pessina also wrote a letter basically endorsing the endorsement of  Rep. Lesser (D) by the teachers union. Phil, people are pretty sick of hearing “it’s is for the children.” If Pessina wanted to become waterboy for the other team he should have just said so.

8. How many tickets to the Mayor's ball will he need to comp (again) in order to make the post event photos look like enough people to fill the room actually showed up? Drew concocted some awards to give out so he is at least guaranteed 3 tables are filled by the recipients families. Do yourself a favor and just cut a check to St. Vincent DePaul Place & tailgate with us in the Elks parking lot, you'll have a better time. 

9. AGAIN! Residents are still receiving inaccurate water & sewer bills, which were all mailed late as well. The W&S audit over 18 months ago said we had a problem. How is this director still collecting a pay check? Oh wait Guy Russo is related to....

10. So the P&Z  Dept. "found" $30,000 extra bucks to reduce the cost of the Riverfront Study by consultants. Wesleyan is "giving" $10,000 to the study.  So the cost being asked for from the Common Council to pay for the study has gone from $75k to $35k. Did someone hire back Frechette to calculate this? What piece of the pie are we giving away to get this cash from WesU? 

11. Wesleyan has a boat launch. Xavier will have a boat launch. Fire and Police will now have an even bigger dock to launch boats. If a Middletown resident wants to put a dinghy in the water you will have to continue to drive to Portland or Haddam. Despite The PooPoo plant being decommissioned will citizens get river access? 

12. A year ago, didn't Mayor Drew whine to the Mess that he didn't know Acquitted By Reason of Insanity on Part of the Busted Judicial System David Messenger was up for his yearly appeal for early limited release from CVH? Didn't he & Councilman Zippy Santangelo, who works for CVH, concoct another lets scare-the-public-with-the-unlikely-release-of-another “psychotic violent criminal” Kenneth Ruggles? Last year Mayor Drew got all “tough” in a press release before the Ruggles hearing to distract from the fact he forgot ( was paling around with Dannel) to address the Messenger hearing.  Lisa you are slipping! Second year, second no action on Drew’s part.

13. Every year it seems Messenger gets an appeal hearing for early “supervised & limited release,” and the same players turn out.  A wise man once said if Messenger is released “I’ll staple a cop to his butt.” People forget the Rev. John Hall wanted Messenger to be able to attend First Church. Hall has since gotten a new gig as bike path czar at the non-profit Jonah Center for Earth, Art, Air, & Money. John so you abandoned your old pal? If Messenger gets out, we think he should live with you!

 14. Rumor had it everyone was laid off from NEAT. Now we hear there is a new acting director. Still no one can find a budget or list of board members on this non-profits website.  BTW, will the North End ever be saved from poverty making NEAT obsolete or is peace in the Middle East more likely? If I am a pent-house occupying - CEO of a non-profit making $600,000 you can guess my answer!

15. The definition of bi-partisanship is: 
“a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system, in which opposing political parties find common ground through compromise, in theory. Realistically, each party advances their own political agenda at the expense of the other party because of the conflicting ideologies.” Councilmen Bibisi and Pessina take note: NOWHERE does it say ass-kiss, sell your soul to, get walked on by, compromise your morals for, abandon your constituents in favor of, or become the doormat of the other party.

16. When Drew can't bring himself to even FAKE being bipartisan & put Republicans on committees as he is by law supposed to do, he just has loyal D's change parties. Doesn't even matter they don't live in Middletown!

17. Rep. Matt Lesser is a member of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League a group that stands up for 2nd Amendment rights, yet he voted in favor for some of the strictest and most unconstitutional gun legislation in the country.

18.  Speaking of Matty and Danny, the Mayor's budget has cut out vaccines for Emergency Management crews, but put in a line item for bunk beds for the two bffs in the Mayor's office so they can chillax after late nights at Mezzo's.

19. Mayor Drew why are you chilling so much with Superintendent Charles? She's out giving speeches & scooping ice cream with you. First, Danno, get back in the office and do your job. Second, Charles has an honest soul from what we can tell, so stop trying to buy it cause we know how that goes with you guys the D's when it comes to superintendents...

Supreme Leaders Big Dannel & Lil Danny

20. Everyone wants to honor veterans, but the fact that Mayor Drew basically gave away Veteran’s Park to the Malloy backed Trees of Honor Memorial is a deal that people should find unsettling.  Why are veteran’s taking it laying down that Mayor Drew wants to shove the Vet’s Museum into a 2,100 sq. ft glorified shipping crate?? How come the idea of Trees of Honor Memorial was never before the Council? It’s a good one, so why not publicly vet it? Since when can the Mayor give land away all on his own?